Convert your Prius to a plug-in for just $12,000

I haven’t been keeping up on electric car technology, but I apparently naively thought that people were converting hybrids to plug-in vehicles with some frequency and at a reasonable cost. I think I was wrong. The city of Seattle, Port of Seattle, King County and Puget Sound Clean Air Agency are announcing today “a yearlong demonstration project testing the performance of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in an urban area.”

They’ll be turning 13 second-generation Priuses into semi-electric cars at a cost of $156,000. The vehicles are expected to get 100 mpg. Money for the conversions is coming equally from the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory and participating agencies.

“Plug-in hybrids are on the cusp of commercialization. Automakers say they will build them if battery costs drop. But battery makers need volume orders to reduce costs. This project and others like it will help speed the process of making plug-in hybrid vehicles available to Americans in each and every state by breaking this logjam.”

Inslee is trying to get the House-passed energy package to include language creating a $4,000 tax credit for consumers who purchase plug-ins, a national plug-in hybrid pilot program and grants for nonprofits and government agencies to promote plug-in hybrids.

Here are the technical details, again from the press release:

A123Systems, a leading high-power lithium ion battery manufacturer based in Watertown, Mass., will provide the conversion kits. Through its Hymotion division, A123 manufactures battery modules that can convert existing hybrids into plug-in hybrids…

Plug-in hybrids can be charged during periods when electricity demand is low, then use the stored energy to allow the car’s hybrid engine to run on electricity, rather than gasoline, more of the time. In a year, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) driven a typical mix of 12,000 city and highway miles will consume from 1,840 kWh to 2,477 kWh of electricity, depending on the battery size. This is equivalent to the energy used in three to five months by an electric water heater in a three-person household (based on 540 kWh per month).